Machine for cutting lead pencils



2 Sheets--Sheet 1.

A. WORTH. MAGHINE PoR GUTTING'LEAD PBNGILS.

Pwatented Aplf. 9,1864.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

A. WORTH. MACHINE FOR CUTTING- LEAD PENGILS.

Patented Apr. 9, 1864.

UNITED STATES ALBIN WARTH, ory srl-IrLEfroN, AssIGNoR To EBERHARD ronx, N. Y.

PATENT OFFICE.

FABER, or NEW IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR CUTTING LEAD-PENCILVS.

.To all whom it may concern.: Beit known that I, ALBIN WAR'I H, of Stapleton, in the county of Richmondand State ot' New York, have invented anew and Improved Machine for GuttingLead-Pencils; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and ex act description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents a longitudinal vertical section of my invention, the line .v Fig. 2, indicating the plane of section. Fig. 2 is a planer top view of the same. Fig. 3 is a partial section taken in the plane indicated by the line y y, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detached plan of the carrying-roller. Fig. 5 is a detached side elevation of various carriers. Fig. 6 is a detached face view of the saw.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts. Y

.The final operation in the manufacture cf lead-pencils is that of cutting 0E `the ends if the same after they are otherwise completely nished. This operation, simple as it appears to be, requires great care, because it must be done after the pencils are already varnished, and Without proper precaution the varnish is liable to become tarnished; and, furthermore, in cutting the ends, the edges of the Wood and the ends ofthe lead are liable to splinter, and thereby the market value of the pencils is considerably deteriorated. For these reasons this operation requires particular care, and heretoforeit has been accomplished entirely byhandlabor, at great expense and lossot' time.

The object of thisinventionis a machine by which the operation of cuttingo' the ends of lead-pencils is accomplished automatically,

requiring no hand-labor, except that of feed-l ing the pencils to the machine, which can be performed by a child, and .leaving both the ends of the wood and those of the lead perfectly smooth.

The construction of this machine and its operations will be readily understood from the following' description.

A represents a frame, made ot' wood or any other suitable material, of sufficient strength and durability to support the various workin g parts of my machine.

A hopper-box, '8,`

through which the lead-pencils are fed to the cutting mechanism, is secured to acrossbar, a, which rests upon4 two standards, b, rising from one end of the frame A.

C is a vibrating tlap, which is secured to a shaft, c, passing transversely through the hopper close under the bottom edge ot' one ot its inclined sides. An arm, d, which is firmly secured to the shaft c, connects with a spring, df, which has a tendency to throw the iiap C back in the direct-ion of the arrow marked near it in Fig. l, and said arm also connects by a strap, d2, with a tappet, "d3, which is actuated by a series of pins, d4, projecting from thev inner surface ot a rotary disk, d5. By these means a vibrating motion is imparted to the flap C, whereby the pencilsin the hopper-box are continually agitated and .prevented from choking the throat or dischargeopening of said box. A strap, di, extending from the arm d to some tixed portion ofthe machine, serves to take up the rebound of the nap and to ease its motions. 0n passing from the hopper the pencils roll between the inclined guide-plates D D', which are fastened below the discharge'opening of said hopper, as clearly shown in Fig. I of the drawings. The plates D are stationary and provided with a iin ger, e2, intended to hold the pencils ldown in the sockets of the carriers; but the plates D are adjustable toward and from the plates D', according to thickness of the pencils, and their lower ends form hooksI e, which retain the pencils, as clearly shown in Figs. I and 3.

In order to compel the pencils to pass singly into the sockets of the carriers, fingers e', of india-rubber or other elastic material, are se cured to the lower ends of the plates D.

E are the carriers, which are secured to the ends of the carrying-heads E by means of screws f. `The .heads E are mounted on the shaftf, and they are so arranged that they can be adj usted farther apart or closer together to suit pencils of differentlengths. In order to effect this purpose, said heads are placed lon the shaftf so that they can move on it in a longitudinal direction, andthey connect by set-screwsf2 with a disk, f3, which is firmly keyed or otherwise fastened to the shaft f, so that by turning these set-screws the heads can be moved ,apart or closer together, as may be desired. l do not wish to confine myself, however, to this particular mechanism for adjusting the heads, it being obvious that the same object can 'be accomplished in various different ways, either by cutting a screw-thread on the shaftj" and confining each head between two nuts, or by set-screws passing through the heads themselves.

The'carriers E are provided with sockets f4, of ditferent shapes, (see Fig. 5,) to receive round, hexagonal, or octagonal pencils of different thicknesses, andfrom one side of these sockets project lips f, which are intended to knock the pencils outof the hooks e at the bottom ends of the plates D, and to cause them to drop into the sockets as the carriers successively passv under said hooks. On being deposited in the successive sockets of the carriers, one pencil after the other is moved through between two gages, F F, which extend from the rear cross-bar, g, ot' the frame A. These gages are adjusted by means of setscrews g,'so that they bear with greater or less power on thc ends ofthe pencils protruding over the outer edges ot' the carriers, a-nd one of the said carriers is made rigid by means of a Z-shaped bracket, q2, the point of which bears on the gage F, uhereas the other gage, F', is yielding, so that it will accommodate itself to the length of different pencils. The Z-,shaped bracket gz is adjustable backward and forward, so that more or less of the pencils can be left to protrude on the side of the rigid gage F, and the quantity to be cut oit' can thus be pretty evenly divided between the two sides of the carriers.

G is the belt'which imparts motion to the carriers E. This belt extends from a pulley, h, on the driving-shaft h over a pulley, h2, on an arborextendin g across the frame A in front of the hopper-box, and over the carryingroller, and from this pulley it extends round under the carrying-heads E', and over a pulley, h3, back to pulley h. The pulleys h? and h3 are so situated in relation to the carryingheads E that by the action of the belt G motion is imparted to the carriers, and at the same time said belt presses the pencils down into the sockets of the carriers and holds them while their ends are cut off; and after the cutting operation has been accomplished s'aid belt carries the pencils back -to the chute H,

from which they drop down into a box or receptacle placed there for that purpose. A slide, t', serves to shut ofi' the discharge from the chute while'the receiving-box is changed. The arbor ofthe rollerh3 has-its bearings in boxes h4, to which a longitudinal sliding motion can be imparted by set-screws h5, so that the tension of the belt G can be regulated.

The operation of cutting the pencils is effected either by the smooth-edged cutters I or by the circular saws l. (Illustrated in Fig. 6.) Said cutters are mounted on an arbor, j, which has its bearings in suitable brackets secured to the frame A, and they (the cutters) are subjected to the act-ion of india rubber. or

other springs,j, which keep their inner sur faces in contact with the outer surfaces of the carriers E, and they are made concave on their inner surfaces, so that their cutting-edges take effect in close proximity to the outer surfaces ofthe carriers, and the wood or cuttings from the pencils are prevented from getting between said outer surfaces of the carriers and the inner surfaces of the cutters. The concave form ot' the cutters is also essential to preventsoiling the ends of the wood with the cuttings of the lead.

The cutting-edges of the cutters, which are' liable to become dull by the lead of thcpencils, are continually sharpened bythe action 'of grinding-stones or emery-wheels J which are mounted on the ends of arbors lc, that have their bearings in frames k, to which an oscillating motion is imparted by rods k2, extending from eccentric wrist-pins k, which project from disks secured to the .ends of the shaft j" of the carrying-heads. By the oscillating motion of the frames the faces of the stones are continually drawn across the bevels at the edges of the cutters, and by this motion the operation of sharpening the' eutting-edgesis facilitated, and, furthermore, the faces ot' the grinding-stones or einery-wheels are kept level and prevented from wearing uneven. The arbors k are vso arranged in the oscillating frames k that they can assume a longitudinal sliding motion, and springs lc, acting on the backs of the stones or wheels J, keep the grinding-surfaces continually up to their work. A rotary motion is imparted to the grindingwheels by means ot belts k5,runnin g from suitable pulleys on the driving-shaft over pulleys k6 on the ends ot' the arbors kx These grinding wheels may also be used it', instead of the cutters I, the saws I"are to be used. These saws are composed of a series of steel sectors, l, which are secured to a back of brass or other suitable material, and the faces of which are provided with radial teeth, as clearly shown in Fig. 6. By the action of the grindingwheels on the outer surface of the saws the` points are continually kept sharp, and the saws are enabled to cut without splintering the wood. The cuttings taken oit from the ends of the pencils by the action of the saws or cutters drop down upon anV inclined chute,

K, and are deposited in frontof the machine.

The eut pencils are discharged from the carriers andcarryingl1eads by the action of ngers m, which-are secured to the cross-bar g and project into grooves m, turned in the surface of. the carrying-heads to such a' depth that the points of said fingers are enabled to catch below the pencilsv in the sockets of the carriers. On being discharged from the carrying-roller's, the pencils, by the action of the belt G, are deposited in the chute H, as previously stated. By this arrangement the operation of cutting oft' the ends. of lead-pencils can be effected with very little hand-labor in a superior manner and without much loss of time.

t What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A machine constructed, arranged, and operating substantially as herein described, for cutting olf the ends of lead-pencils.

rThe oscillating iap C at the bottom of the hopper-box I3, constructed and operating substantiallyv as herein described, so that the. pencils in the hopper-box are agitated without havin g' their varnished surfaces tarnished.

3. The india-rubber fingers e', arranged at the bottom of the hopper-box l, for the pun pose of compelling the pencils to pass singly into the sockets of the carriers.

4. rlhe carriers E, with sockets f* and lips f", in combination with hooks e at the lower ends of the plates D, constructed and operating, substantially as herein described, so that `one pencil after the other is taken from the hooks e and deposited in the sockets f4.

5. The combination of the adjustable heads E with the carriers E, so that said carriers can be adjusted for pencils of diierent lengths.

6. The concave cutter I, in combination with the springs j and with the carriers E, constructed and operating in the manner and for the purpose substantially as herein shown and described.

7. The oscillating grinding-wheels J, applied in combination with the cutters I or saws l', in the manner and for the purpose substantially as set forth.

ALBIN WARTH.

Witnesses:

W. HAUFF. OcTAVrUs KNIGHT. 

